Green Day in El Paso March 13: Post-punk legends to stop in at Tricky Falls for rare club date

Green Day is coming to El Paso's Tricky Falls for a rare club show on March 13.

Tickets for the Wednesday night performance will be $51, plus service charges, and will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at holdmyticket.com.

There will be a two-ticket limit and the person who buys the tickets must show up to claim them on the night of the show.

In addition to the El Paso show, the group will perform at the Fox Theater in Pomona, Calif., on March 10 and the Marquee in Tempe, Ariz., on March 11. The El Paso stop will be its last before the SXSW appearance.

It's a rare club stop for one of post-punk music's biggest bands, and is one of the group's first since singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong went into rehab last fall for substance abuse.

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Doug Pullen

"I'm pretty sure it's the smallest, if not among the smallest venues they're playing," said Bobbie Welch, one of the club's owners. "It's pretty exciting to have a band of that stature playing the club."

It's unclear how many, or if, the band will play any other club shows in the run-up to a spring tour launching March 28 in Chicago.

The Tricky Falls show will precede Green Day's debut at Austin's South by Southwest Festival.

The trio -- whose hits include "Longview," "When I Come Around," "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" -- will play Austin's ACL Live at the Moody Theatre on March 15, the same day two documentaries about the band's recent projects will premiere.

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"Broadway Idiot" chronicles the evolution of the band's Grammy Award-winning 2004 album, "American Idiot," into a Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical in 2010. "American Idiot" started its first North American tour in 2011.

"Cuatro!" is a documentary about the making of the three albums the band recorded and released last year -- "Uno!," "Dos!" and "Tré!."

The El Paso and Austin shows are expected to be among a handful of warmup dates for a spring tour launching March 28 at Chicago's Allstate Arena.

Armstrong went into treatment after an angry, guitar-smashing outburst at last September's iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas. The group also pulled out of New Orleans' Voodoo Music Experience in October.

His treatment forced Green Day -- which includes bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool -- to postpone shows from Nov. 26-Dec. 10 last year and Jan. 7-Feb. 8 this year.

"I just want to thank all of you for the love and support you've shown for the past few months," Armstrong said in a tour announcement earlier this month. "Believe me, it hasn't gone unnoticed and I'm eternally grateful to have such an amazing set of friends and family. I'm getting better everyday. So now, without further ado, the show must go on."

Green Day will perform in El Paso at Trickey Falls before heading to Austin's SWSW. (AP file photo)

Welch expects the show to sell out quickly.

"It's definitely going to sell out that day, Friday. I don't know how fast," she said, adding that capacity for the show is 1,500 people.

She said those who purchase tickets will need to line up before 6:30 p.m. March 13, when the club's doors will open, the day of the show. Only those given a wrist band will be allowed entrance, she said.

Wrist bands will be issued only to those who purchased tickets, and their guests. The name on the purchase order must match the name on the ticket list.

"The buyer has to be the person who comes and gets banded to prevent scalping," she said. "If I'm Bobbie Welch (on the ticket purchase), I can't have Joe Smith pick up the pair of tickets at the door."

The show will start at 8:30 p.m. with an opening act, the identity of which has not been announced. Green Day will go on later that night.

Doug Pullen may be reached at dpullen@elpasotimes.com; 546-6397. Read Pullen My Blog at elpasotimes.com/blogs. Follow him on Twitter @dougpullen and Facebook at facebook.com/dougpulleneptimes